Friday, April 6, 2018
Vol. 94, No.28
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Operation Cookie PAGE 18 n Going solar? PAGE 28
Village’s costs from snowstorms pile up
THE COOKIE GIRLS
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Troop #1242 recently set up a cookie booth at the Nassau Boulevard train station to sell the last of their cookies. The girls managed to pick a sunny afternoon in between all the recent Nor’easters to make their sales. Each girl had a turn to wear the 3 different cookie costumes during the afternoon. A special thanks to amazing Cookie Mom Corrin Culhane for organizing the successful event!
Water Projects, DPW Budget discussed BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
The Board of Trustees will vote on the 20182019 municipal budget at its Thursday, April 12th reorganization meeting, but a cost that has been minds of the trustees since last year is the octogenarian water tank that is scheduled to be replaced in the course of the coming budget year. Superintendent of Public Works Joseph DiFrancisco updated the trustees and members of the public about the kickoff meeting recently held with the tank vendor and H2M Engineering of Melville, the village’s full-service water consultants, for the Old Country
Road water tower replacement project, at an all-inclusive cost of $8 million approved at the end of 2017 for a new million-gallon water tank. The bid of $6.738 million from Caldwell Tanks was awarded, and construction and finance involves the additional contingency fees, H2M consulting services, financing costs and the cost of paving the Ethical Humanist Society parking lot. The new water tower and replacement/ improvement projects at all of the village’s water wells are tied to another cost for the municipality as Garden City has worked with outside engineers who presented the choices See page 55
At the Board of Trustees’ Thursday, March 22nd meeting, Village Treasurer Irene Woo said the adjusted snow removal budget for the year is running $70,000 higher than anticipated. The Department of Public Works’ budget presentation for year 2018-2019 (starting June 1st) was presented on March 15, but the figures forecasted from now until May 31st for snow removal have to be adjusted after a heavy amount of snow throughout March and into April. Woo met with Department of Public Works (DPW) Superintendent Joseph DiFrancisco to discuss the nor’easter impacts on village snow removal costs. “Those extra funds will be coming from village Contingency as we will be submitting the rest of Contingency for this fiscal year -- we are still good with our surplus,” she said. On Wednesday March 21st, the day prior to the last meeting and Woo’s announcement, another 9.5 inches of snow was recorded in Garden City while 14 inches was recorded in Old Bethpage and Hicksville. DiFrancisco said the fourth nor’easter of March was particularly tough as it ran for almost 24 hours in a row. “DPW crews worked a long time with the wet, heavy snow. I just want to recognize all of them and also Parks and Recreation employees for their efforts working alongside each other. There were over 50 employees and 50 trucks on the ground involved in snow removal on roads at the height of the storm. We used 250 tons of salt and also used Pratt Brothers (contractors) to help us clear through village parking lots. Our mechanics at the Village Yard are always on hand during these storms and we must do a lot of prep-work to get snow removal vehicles ready... They did about 55 repairs during this storm,” he explained. The corresponding budget accounts for the 2018-2019 budget for DPW displays snow removal as expense line items, in both departmental operations and “third party services.” The Village’s Public Works budget overall is proposed to see a 2% increase, from $8.565 million in the modified 2017-2018 (current) DPW budget up to $8.723 million. For snow removal, the forecast budget including the immediate past winter into spring was $384,000 (presented to the Board at its March 15th work session) and this was higher than the $361,000 in the modified 2017-2018 budget. For 2018-’19, the proposal for snow removal under DPW was lower at $358,000. This did not take into account services including Pratt Brothers’ plowing and ancillary or outside snow removal expenses. Also at the Board’s March 22nd meeting, a transfer of funds was approved moving $13, 374 from the village contingent fund into the Parks’ fund, to pay for emergency tree work needed to due to Winter Storm Riley (during the first weekend of March). The money goes toward paying the bill from vendor Harder Services, Inc. of Hempstead, See page 25
Historical Society plans gala to benefit house museum PAGE 34 Chamber's Pineapple Ball pulling out all the stops PAGE 35